Some humble Tips and Advice for beginners

[tinkthank]

Hello there!

I am a beginner as well, and since the people of this community here are extremely helpful and have helped me, a newbie, very much, and I wanted to at least attempt to pass on some of that help further.

This little post is just a collection of a few things that are not found in this form in the other excellent resources here on this site. It assumes that everyone has already read the excellent post by Saber Cherry here on this forum
and taken a look at the walkthrough.

So this is not to replace or compete with any "information" available here; this is for advice. I try to answer a couple of questions I posed when I was brand spanking new, and so hope maybe this helps. So if anyone else has further "tips", feel free to add em.

My humble ones are broken down into the Category
1. teminological (glossary)
2. a word on fortresses
3. nations for beginners
4. a word on gems


1. Glossary
Rainbow Mage: A pretender who has a few points (1-3) in as many magical paths as possible. (The point here is to be able to be both a Jack of All Trades as well as a good Searcher for magic sites.)
SC = Supercombatant: A pretender who is excellent in dealing out and taking damage in combat, as early in the game as possible.

2. A Few Words on Fortresses and Fortress Placement

When I first started DomII, I thought the purpose of constructing new fortresses was primarily to defend captured provinces particularly well. Although fortresses may buy you more time in defending a province, their main purposes as I see them lie elsewhere, since defense of a province can only be accomplished with personell.
Remember that fortresses
- increase the effectiveness of taxation
- increase the amount of resources available in the province in which they are placed, and hence allow you to recruit troops there much faster, by taking resources from the immediate vicinity
- allow you to recruit your own troops (if you are an overwater nation)
- allow better supply distribution

This means that you will want to put up fortresses in strategically clever locations, but not everywhere. Don't put up fortresses right next to each other unless there is some pressing reason, since it will greatly decrease the effectiveness of both. Put up fortresses to keep soldiers far away from home from starving. But where?
For obvious reasons, in general, it is a good idea to put up fortresses in provinces with more resources than with less; otherwise, you will hardly have enough resources to recruit more than 1 or 2 units per turn; it is a good idea to put up fortresses in provinces where you think you would like to have a starting point for a further campaign; build fortresses before vast expanses of deserts start if you have normal units which require food.

But here is the one tip that I didnt realize at first: Put up fortresses in those provinces which have standard recruitable units that would supplement your army well. In case you havent already noticed, you can recruit "local" troops in every province you own; as a rule of thumb, these will be troops similar to the ones you fought to take over that province in the first place. You can see which troops you can recruit in a province you own even without a fortress by hitting the "recruit" ("r") button. All things being otherwise equal, I generally try to capture those provinces whose troops I think will supplement my strategy well. For example: Atlantis and Abysia have no native missile troops; if you would like to have some, try taking out a province with archers or crossbowmen defending; then, you can recruit them later. Scout ahead to see which locals are defending where; with luck, you might find two provinces with troops that can help you; with even more luck, one of these provinces will be in a strategically advantageous place (that is: it has a decent number of resources, it is surrounded by provinces that you can also capture and keep well, it is not right next to a place you also want to put another fortress, it is not a province towards which your opponent(s) are making a beehive, etc.) T'ien Ch'i Spring and Autumn has no native heavy cavalry; if you would like some, try taking out a province with some cavalry, if circumstances allow. Building a fortress in that province (all other things being equal) should allow you to recruit between 1 and 5 of those heavy units per turn; without a fortress, you might be lucky to even be able to recruit 1 heavy cav every 5 turns.


3. "Which nation should I start with?" / "Which nations are easier to play?"
This question is often posed, and although the only really helpful answer can be "it depends (on your style)", here are some general tips

- Since the walkthrough I mentioned earlier uses Jotunheim, you may want to start or continue with them for a bit.
- The magic system in DII is very complex; I found it helpful to learn the magic system by starting with more "straightforward" nations, or nations with more straightforward magic usage, such as Ulm. Nations with fewer natural magical path choices may also be easier to learn; for example, Man has Air and Nature available to them, while T'ien Ch'i has Fire, Water, Air, and Astral available.
- Underwater nations are somewhat difficult, since you cannot recruit your own troops on land
- Mictlan is a complicated race to play
- Ermor is a race which has many advantages and is in my opinion easy to win with against computer AI opponents, but is not representative of how the other nations function

4. Magic Gems
You need magic gems to cast "ritual" spells and to forge magic items. Ritual spells are those ones that happen "outside" of tactical combat in your laboratories.
Some more powerful in-battle magic spells also require gems. None of your mages will be able to cast these spells unless they have some of the appropriate gems in their gem inventory; you can put them there by right-clicking in their little gem box (the far right on their statistics screen) as long as they are in a province with a lab.
But magic gems are also useful in three other ways.
First, you can cash them in for money. A fire gem is worth the most. If you really need those Last couple of gold pieces to build that fortress or buy that unit, you can "alchemize" in a pinch.
Secondly: You can make your mages more powerful in a magic path and decrease fatigue cost of spell usage during the course of combat by giving them gems; try it out and see. If a mage with a level 1 fire skill is given a magic fire gem, he can cast fireball (which requires 2 fire path skill points); by using more gems, he can reduce the fatigue costs of spells further.
Finally, gems can permanently increase the skill of one your mages. This takes a complete turn to boost the path by 1. If you *really* need, say, an Earth mage (let's say you *really* want to forge a particular item which requires 3 skill points in Earth, but you don't have any mages with any skills in earth at all, and you can't recruit any anywhere), then you can make one of your mages a level-1 earth mage by giving him 50 earth gems. Increasing him to level 2 would cost another 30, but perhaps you can now forge a magic item (say, a Blood Stone) which would give him a temporary +1 bonus (as long as he holds that item) to earth, thus a total Earth level 2. At this level, he could perhaps forge additional items (say, Earth Boots) which would give him yet another +1 to earth, hence a net +3, thus allowing you to forge that item you really wanted.

5. General tips
- Experiment! Try, for example, setting up a game against 5 computer AI opponents on Aran. Then try a game with similar settings but different AI nations as opponents. Then try a game with identical opponents but a different pretender setup. Try vastly different pretender setups (try a "rainbow mage", an "SC", and something else). Try the same setup with a pretender with *NO* magic skills whatsoever -- just for the heck of it, to see what those "scales" in God-Creation-Mode are really good for. Try playing a completely different style by trying to use as many light "stealthy" units as possible vs. using only heavy units.
- Don't forget mercenaries! At first, I did. But they can be very helpful in a pinch. Mercenaries can be bid upon in any province you own, and will then "arrive" in the province of your choice, should you have bid high enough. That is, you can bid on mercenaries and have them come to any province you want that you own, but be careful: if you bid on them in a province which is then taken over by the enemy while you were bidding, you will not get them. Dont forget to keep track of them -- if they are still alive after the first 3 turns, you can bid on them for half their price.

Well, I hope this is somewhat helpful. Happy gaming!

[PhilD]

Very interesting post, even though I don't believe I'm enough of a newbie anymore to make the most of it...

Minor comments, mostly about fortresses.

Originally posted by tinkthank:

2. A Few Words on Fortresses and Fortress Placement

When I first started DomII, I thought the purpose of constructing new fortresses was primarily to defend captured provinces particularly well. Although fortresses may buy you more time in defending a province, their main purposes as I see them lie elsewhere, since defense of a province can only be accomplished with personell.
Remember that fortresses
- increase the effectiveness of taxation

Do they? I thought they only influenced Resources... (yes, I know I don't build enough)

- increase the amount of resources available in the province in which they are placed, and hence allow you to recruit troops there much faster, by taking resources from the immediate vicinity
- allow you to recruit your own troops (if you are an overwater nation)
- allow better supply distribution

This means that you will want to put up fortresses in strategically clever locations, but not everywhere. Don't put up fortresses right next to each other unless there is some pressing reason, since it will greatly decrease the effectiveness of both. Put up fortresses to keep soldiers far away from home from starving. But where?
For obvious reasons, in general, it is a good idea to put up fortresses in provinces with more resources than with less; otherwise, you will hardly have enough resources to recruit more than 1 or 2 units per turn; it is a good idea to put up fortresses in provinces where you think you would like to have a starting point for a further campaign; build fortresses before vast expanses of deserts start if you have normal units which require food.

Another thing to take into consideration if you're going to build walking armies with more than 1 strategic move: if you can have your fortress surrounded by plains, but in "rough" terrain (like an isolated Mountain or Forest), you will benefit from the higher Resources, but your newly recruited armies won't be slowed down by the terrain when they start marching out.

Finally, gems can permanently increase the skill of one your mages. This takes a complete turn to boost the path by 1. If you *really* need, say, an Earth mage (let's say you *really* want to forge a particular item which requires 3 skill points in Earth, but you don't have any mages with any skills in earth at all, and you can't recruit any anywhere), then you can make one of your mages a level-1 earth mage by giving him 50 earth gems. Increasing him to level 2 would cost another 30, but perhaps you can now forge a magic item (say, a Blood Stone) which would give him a temporary +1 bonus (as long as he holds that item) to earth, thus a total Earth level 2. At this level, he could perhaps forge additional items (say, Earth Boots) which would give him yet another +1 to earth, hence a net +3, thus allowing you to forge that item you really wanted.

Note that, if all you want is access to a new path of magic, finding a recuitable independent mage with the path if often much cheaper than the 50 gems it takes to empower a new path. Libraries are plentiful, and Sages have a fully random magic pick, so if you find them early, they typically are a good buy. Build a lab in the province, and try to put a fortress around your newly founded Sage assembly. (Note: when playing basic Ulm, you will almost certainly take a strong Drain dominion, since your Master Smiths are immune to it; then Sages are not that good a buy)

I tend to only empower later in the game, or when I need a particular path combination.

[Taqwus]

An interesting bit with mercenaries is that while when first joining your service, they appear in the province you bid, when merely continuing their employment you can bid in a safer province e.g. your capital. They will not relocate, and unlike Dom I you can have multiple mercenary bands hired from one province. Another bit is that they're good for compensating for national weaknesses (lack of heavy cavalry, say) or jump-starting expansion -- e.g. you can hire Hector's Heavy Horsemen and get a bunch of knights for cheaper and faster than you can hire them yourself, esp if you have Sloth scales or otherwise low resources.

[CharonJr]

One minor general strategic hint (useful in all strategy games actually):

Try to take out the enemies ability to keep on fighting (i.e. recruit more troops) as fast as possible.

Here this means try to locate the enemies fortress and take the province it is located in as soon as possible (vs AIs this is the key to victory IMO since they only build 1 fortress).

You don't even have to take the fortress itself, just holding the province prevents the building of new troops (there) and usually nets you a very nicve additional income which you enemy will no longer get (getting stronger while weakening an enemy is always a good idea ).

CharonJr

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by CharonJr:
You don't even have to take the fortress itself, just holding the province prevents the building of new troops (there) and usually nets you a very nicve additional income which you enemy will no longer get (getting stronger while weakening an enemy is always a good idea ).

The holder of the fortress gets the income, while the holder of the province gets to set the tax rate.

[CharonJr]

Hmm, strange, I could have sworn that I have had fairly huge increases in income when I took a capital province even before taking the fortress, but this might have been coincidence then.

Thx for correcting me

CharonJr

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:
The holder of the fortress gets the income, while the holder of the province gets to set the tax rate.

This is incorrect. The holder of the province gets both the lion's share of the income, and gets to set the tax rate. I have dozens of save games that can prove it.

[Kel]

Originally posted by Arryn:
The holder of the province gets both the lion's share of the income, and gets to set the tax rate. I have dozens of save games that can prove it.

Interesting. I assume they don't get the benefit of the administrative increase to the provinces income then ? (since they don't own the fortification).

Anyone have a more specific idea on what the "lion's share" might be, percentage wise ?

Just curious,
- Kel

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Kel:
Anyone have a more specific idea on what the "lion's share" might be, percentage wise?

The reason I used the phrase "lion's share" is because the defender does get an income also. But the defender's income is smaller than the besieger's, from what I've seen.

I think the attacker gets the province income, all of it, and the defender gets just the admin income. But this is just a guess. Some testing, or word from the devs, would help pin this down.

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

This is a good resource for beginners.

Please add a section on province defense. This is a part of the game that most beginners and many intermediate players don't know about or forget. Province Defense helps against restless natives, bandits, and invading armies. Any amount helps against restless natives to some degree. 5% or more helps against bandits. 10% or more helps patrol the province against enemy stealth units attempting to scout/spy/assassinate in your territory. At 10% I believe you also get a small squad of your base denfender unit, with one leader. At 20% you have two squads, and a pretty good defense against invading armies early in the game. The costs of PD escalates rapidly, so there is a point of diminishing return--which you have to decide upon. 0--10% costs 50 gold; 0-->20% costs 200gold; 0-->30% would cost 400gold (I think). Once you have paid, you don't have to pay again. You get the effects permanently--unless the province is taken from you!

Another tip is taxation. When you have a province with restless natives, you can reduce the problem by reducing taxes. Change your tax rate to 80% and people will start behaving themselves. Check back in a few turns--if you are back to 0% upset people, then change your taxes back up to 100%. Otherwise your province could get worse, and you could lose taxes and resources--and population--in the long run.

OTOH, these might be better in an intermediate manual, as newbies have enough to worry about with this extremely complicated game!!